The invention relates to a support assembly means which support means is adapted to conform to a range of configurations. In particular the present invention relates to a support assembly means for supporting a body held thereon in a range of different positions. Even more particularly the support assembly means finds specific application in relation to treatment of long term bed ridden patients.
There are many problems faced by long term bed ridden patients substantially incapable of supporting their own movement. Persons who stay in contact with bed support for long periods of time are prone to suffer from poor blood circulation and decubitus ulcers (bed sores) as a result of a generally immobile condition. Generally patients falling into this category have required in the past significant and repeated attention by hospital staff, person carers or relatives so as to avoid lying or sitting in a single position for extended periods of time.
Problems have often been exacerbated due to low hospital staffing levels and therefore failure to provide adequate frequency of patient position change. Even further difficulties are experienced when such adequate frequency of change requires disturbance of a patient day and night and labour intensity associated with frequent physical lifting of patients generally undertaken by nursing staff. Particular occupational health and safety problems have been highlighted when repeated heavy lifting is required.
There have been many attempts in the prior art to address the above problems. For example in GB 2045603 there is disclosed a bed in which a patient can be supported by an open net mesh which is attached across a support frame, which is in turn supported by a base frame. The support frame consists of two spaced parallel longitudinal members which are adapted to fold inwards thus providing the net mesh to support a patients weight. The means by which a patient is rolled comprises a combination of tilting the support frame and tensioning the mesh net at various points, depending on what part of a patients body the net is supporting. This type of bed is somewhat clumsy and requires presence of nursing staff so as to appropriately apply tension to the mesh net during the course of operating the bed.
In EP 262771 there is disclosed a sub-bed mattress assembly adapted to roll a patient. The sub-bed mattress consists of two leafs divided longitudinally and overlaying a respective lateral portion of a supporting base connected by hinges. There is disposed beneath each leaf bladders for independently raising each leaf so as to roll a bed occupant. When one bladder is inflated the overlaying mattress portion is raised and the whole mattress moved sideways so that a person lying thereon is correspondingly rolled. This system is again cumbersome, expensive and cannot be used to form a cradle configuration. In this prior art there is inevitably a risk of a patient rolling out of the bed.
Other prior art such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,875,598, while a cradle type configuration is adopted, in order for rocking motion to commence so as to roll a patient some patient motion is required to initiate rocking movement. In addition the cradle configuration is attained by providing multiple hinges, collapsing spring assemblies and telescoping components, which add to the complexity of this apparatus.
It is known that a conventional hospital bed can adopt a variety of positions found to be useful for aiding treatment or improving comfort of persons suffering certain medical conditions. The following positions for example the trendelenberg 15xc2x0, reverse trend 15xc2x0, cardiac chair, vascular and posture relaxation are known to persons skilled in the art. A conventional hospital bed can be raised or lowered for convenience in any of the above positions, and can be tilted to some extent with difficulty.
The applicant has found that prior art means of turning patients have suffered the drawback of not being able to do so in all available conventional positions. There has, as previously mentioned, therefore been a long felt need to address this problem so as to provide a means of turning a patient in any combination of desired bed positions.
The present invention intends to ameliorate at least one of the above disadvantages.
There has been a long felt need in this art to provide an efficient and cost effective means of improving patient care and quality of life for long term immobile bed ridden patients.
Accordingly the present invention provides in a first aspect a bed assembly for altering the position of a person supported thereon including:
a longitudinal support frame having a support surface for receiving a person thereon;
a longitudinal cradle means extending over the support surface, the cradle means being attached to the support surface substantially along a central axis in the longitudinal direction thereof, the cradle means further incorporating a recess extending along side portions of the cradle means in the longitudinal direction thereof adapted for receiving and engaging an engaging means;
a cradle support engaging means mounted to the support frame in close relation to said recess adapted to be extendable and retractable in engaged relation within said recess along said longitudinal side portions of said cradle means so as to promote change in configuration of said cradle means;
a first actuator mechanism disposed beneath the support frame in physical coupling relation to the engaging means for extending or retracting the engaging means;
wherein in a first condition the first actuator means causes the engaging means to extend towards and be received by said recess extending along said longitudinal side portions of the cradle means, thereafter causing the cradle means to move, in positive engagement with the engaging means, with extending movement of the engaging means between a position of rest and a substantially concave configuration about the central longitudinal axis of the support surface and in a second condition the first actuator means causes the engaging means to retract so as to correspondingly promote movement of the cradle means from said substantially concave configuration to said resting position conforming with the support surface, the change in configuration of the cradle means between said first and second condition being controllably continuous, staggered or cyclicle so as to aid movement of a person lying on said support surface.
In a second aspect of the invention there is disclosed a bed assembly for altering the position of a person supported thereon including:
a longitudinal support frame having a support surface for receiving a person thereon;
a base support on which the support is centrally pivotally mounted;
a longitudinal cradle means extending over the support surface, the cradle means being attached to the support surface substantially along a central axis in the longitudinal direction thereof, the cradle means further incorporating a recess extending along side portions of the cradle means in the longitudinal direction thereof adapted for receiving and engaging an engaging means;
a cradle support engaging means mounted to the support frame in close relation to said recess adapted to be extendable and retractable in engaged relation within said recess along said longitudinal side portions of said cradle means so as to promote change in configuration of said cradle means;
a first actuator mechanism disposed beneath the support frame in physical coupling relation to the engaging means for extending or retracting the engaging means;
a second actuator mechanism coupled between the base support, and longitudinal support frame for promoting independent pivot movement of the support frame about its longitudinal central axis;
wherein in a first condition the first actuator means causes the engaging means to extend towards and be received by said recess extending along said longitudinal side portions of the cradle means, thereafter causing the cradle support to move in positive engagement with the engaging means, with extending movement of the engaging means between a position of rest and a substantially concave configuration about the central longitudinal axis of the support surface and in a second condition the first actuator means causes the engaging means to retract so as to correspondingly promote movement of the cradle means from said substantially concave configuration to said resting position conforming with the support surface, the change in configuration of the cradle support means between said first and second condition being controllably continuous, staggered or cyclicle;
and the second actuator mechanism is able to act upon the support frame so as to promote tilting movement thereof to one side or the other about the longitudinal axis of the support frame;
the change in configuration of the cradle means being independent of the tilting movement of the support frame so as to aid movement of a person lying thereon.
It has been found by the applicant that a person lying on the bed assembly of the invention is able to be moved by the change in configuration of the cradle means. Because the configuration of the cradle means is able to change either continuously or incrementally, the applicants have also found that a body can be moved with less manual physical labour intervention. The applicant has also found that the cradle means enables turning of patients in all known conventional bed positions.
The present invention finds particular application to hospital beds, in particular for aiding movement of informed, invalid or bedridden patients incapable of moving themselves.
Preferably the cradle means is a sheet type material having a recess on each side portion said recess extending in a longitudinal direction thereof.
Preferably the sheet material is selected from thermoplastic or thermosetting plastics. More preferably the material is a acrylomitrilebutadiene-styrene copolymer.
Preferably the cradle means can be a single continuous sheet or can be a series of sheet sections adapted to correspond to divided sections of a support frame.
Preferably the cradle means has a series of slots evenly spaced extending in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis.
The purpose of such slots is to improve the flexibility of the sheet and its ability to contour so as to better support various body parts during turning. It is found by the applicant that depending on the position of the patients body on the sheet, certain parts of the sheet will be under tension by virtue of weight distribution of a patient supported thereon, while other parts may remain loose.
Preferably a central portion of the cradle means extending longitudinally along the support frame is securably attached to the support frame by means of screwing to the frame or by using a system of valcro.
Preferably the cradle means can further have a mattress placed thereon.
Preferably the cradle support engaging means is a frame structure disposed beneath and extending across said support frame.
Preferably the frame structure includes a set of raising arms adapted to be extendable and retractable when said engaging means is acted upon by said first actuator mechanism.
Preferably the raising arms are cantilevered so as to adopt a first folded position adjacent longitudinal sides of the support frame when retracted and a second perpendicular position with respect to the support surface when extended.
Preferably the frame includes a pair of engagement transmission bars positioned on either side of the support frame and coupled to the raising arms so as to be raised and lowered with extended and retracted movement of the raising arms respectively.
Preferably the raising arms and transmission bars are able to be moved in unison.
Preferably the support frame is divided into a plurality of sections or plates.
More preferably the support frame has at least two sections, most preferably there are three sections or plates adapted to be independently slidably or pivotally movable so as to be capable of adopting any number of conventional positions including for example a reclining position and other positions mentioned previously.
Preferably the support frame can be pivotally adjusted about a vertical plane passing through its centrally located longitudinal axis.
Preferably the base support can be raised or lowered or tilted about a vertical axis.
Preferably the first and second actuator means is a piston operated hydraulically or by compressed air or electronically. More preferably the actuator means can be operated by a remote sensor device.
Preferably the actuator means can be continuously operable. In this way the movement of the cradle support means can be performed with the support frame and base support in any desired combination of positions.
The applicants have found that the bed assembly of the present invention can effectively and efficiently support a body up to a weight of about 150 kg. The applicants present invention is capable of continuous or intermittent independent actuation of side arms and rocking motion by means of a first and second actuator respectively. This means that a body being supported by the present invention can be turned repeatedly while passing through a central origin point. Turning of a patient can also be conducted while the support frame is inclined at any angle to the base frame or at any predetermined height. In particular an advantage of the present invention is its capability of turning a patient with the bed in any desired combination of positions.
Specific embodiments of this invention will now be described by way of non-limiting example.